Superman (Modern Age)
|-|Rebirth= |-|Post-Crisis= |-|Sundipped= |-|Cosmic Armor= Summary Superman '''is one of the most powerful beings in the universe of DC Comics, as well as its greatest hero. Born on Planet Krypton to the illustrious House of El, '''Kal-El is one of the last surviving members of his race due to his planet being destroyed not long after his birth. After being rocketed to Earth by his birth parents, Jor-El and Lara, Kal-El was found and raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville, Kansas, and renamed Clark Kent. Raised with high moral standards and idealism, he uses his incredible strength, speed, flight, and various other superpowers to fight evil and protect the innocent, becoming both a symbol of hope and justice for the people of Earth to rally behind. In his civilian identity, he is Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter working for the Daily Planet in Metropolis. However, the world truly knows him as Superman, a founding member of the Justice League of America and a charter member of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 30th Century. With the conclusion to Flashpoint ''and the end of the Post-Crisis continuity, Superman was thought to have been erased. However, he along with his wife, Lois Lane, and son, Jon Kent, survived and were transported to the Prime Earth of the Post-Flashpoint continuity. Following the death of that world's Superman, Clark once again takes up the mantle in the ''Rebirth ''story arcs to once again fulfill his goal of defending the planet and protecting the innocent. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938 and debuted in ''Action Comics #1 published by DC Comics. Powers and Stats Key: Post-Crisis | Sundipped | Cosmic Armor | Rebirth Tier: 4-A | 3-C | 1-B | 5-A Name: Superman / Kal-El / Clark Kent Epithets: Man of Steel, Post-Crisis Superman, Modern Age Superman Origin: DC Comics Gender: Male Age: 25 (DC Year 1), 47 (DC Year 22), 47 (Rebirth) Race: Kryptonian Classification: Superhero / Founding Member of the Justice League / Reporter Powers and Abilities: Stellar Radiation Absorption, Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Flight, Heat Vision, Freeze Breath, Super Breath, Enhanced Senses, Healing Factor, Telepathy Attack Potency: Multi-Solar System level | Galaxy level | Hyperverse level | Large Planet level (Stated to be just as powerful as Post-Flashpoint Superman) Speed: Supremely FTL+ (3.15 sextillion times as he reacted to Reality-Blitzing Missiles) | Supremely FTL+ | Immeasurable | Supremely FTL+ (At least 270 billion times. Stated to be just as powerful as Post-Flashpoint Superman) Durability: Multi-Solar System level | Galaxy level | Hyperverse level | Large Planet level (Stated to be just as powerful as Post-Flashpoint Superman) Lifting Strength: Multi-Stellar | Galactic | Immeasurable | Multi-Stellar Striking Strength: Multi-Solar System | Galactic | Hyperversal | Class XPJ Range: Standard melee range normally, Interstellar with Heat Vision Stamina: Virtually Inexhaustible (while under yellow or blue stellar radiation) Mental Capacity: Super Genius / Advanced Telepath (mental barriers, telepathic illusion projection) Fighting Experience: Class A-5 (Boxing, Warworld Combat, Pressure Points, Torquasm Rao, Torquasm Vo / 1,000+ years fighting in Asgard alongside Wonder Woman) Standard Equipment: Kryptonian Battle Armor Weaknesses: Kryptonite (various kinds), Red Stellar Radiation, Magic, Other Kryptonians Notable Powers/Techniques/Equipment 'Powers' Kryptonian Physiology: Superman's cellular structure is much denser, more resilient, and biologically more effective than human tissue. He does not possess superhuman strength levels despite his enhanced cellular ability if his cellular structure is not charged with yellow solar energy. Without such charging, his physical capabilities are identical to a human of his height and weight who engages in regular physical activity. As an alien, he possesses several organs whose functions are not yet disclosed or understood, but are believed to be part of or the source of his bio-matrix force field and reclamation aura. Superman's body also stores energy actively within his bio-cellular matrix as an energy pattern that is linked to his body's electromagnetic field. This energy powers most of his electromagnetic capabilities such as flight, heat vision and other "sight"-based abilities while supplementing his physical abilities to superhuman levels. *'Solar Radiation Absorption:' As a Kryptonian, Superman’s cells function like a super battery, hyper-metabolizing specific wavelengths of radiation as fuel to enable living functions and/or superhuman abilities. Different wavelengths of radiation have different effects on Superman's physiology and well-being, but his cells cannot absorb or utilize all types of radiation—only that from stars. The wavelength of his home solar system's red sun enables his body to function on an identical level of a healthy human male while the Sun’s solar radiation in both its raw and filtered state through the Earth's atmosphere acts as fuel to enable all of his powers. Every time Superman uses any of his superhuman abilities, his body expends absorbed sunlight. His cellular structure has the ability to absorb an unlimited amount of yellow sunlight, making him more powerful the closer he is to the radiation and the longer he bathes in it. It should also be noted that his body “hyper-metabolizes” yellow sunlight, meaning that it duplicates the radiation absorbed by a certain factor, as he can regenerate to his peak capacity not long after expending a great deal of his solar power and increase the amount of solar power he absorbs for more difficult tasks. The solar-based radiation of a foreign blue star proved to increase his known abilities under a yellow sun to even higher degrees and enabled additional powers. The existence and constant exposure to proven "healthy" radiation sources is not required for him to live and utilize his powers, but prolonged periods without exposure to them and/or utilizing his powers will require Kal-El to recharge in order to live and continue using his powers, though it takes at least more than five days without sunlight for Superman to begin losing power. Also, it is possible for Superman to voluntarily absorb certain kinds of radiation relating to solar radiation, as he absorbed an entire “Anti-Sun” of the Mageddon that would have “wiped out half the galaxy” had he not done so. *'Superhuman Durability:' Superman is impervious to almost all forms of harm and physical ailments. This includes toxins, disease, blunt force trauma, extreme pressures, and extremely high temperatures. Over the years, he has brushed off bullets, bombs, nuclear detonations, planet collisions, flying through stars, several supernovas at point blank range. His invulnerability is enough that it grants him the ability to survive in any environment unabated and without discomfort; including underwater, in the vacuum of space, and even within the cores of planets and stars themselves. Partially, this invincibility is due to his Kryptonian physiology, which provides him a much denser molecular structure than any normal human while under a yellow sun. But also, Superman’s body produces a very thin—albeit very powerful—bio-electric force field around his entire body. This force field shrugs off the brunt of all damage dealt to Superman’s body. And if something actually does manage to make Superman bleed, it is because it has not only bypassed the force field, but it was also powerful enough to damage his super dense molecular structure. Even Superman’s innards are composed of the same super dense and nigh invincible molecules that make up his skin, as he’s been able to swallow entire bombs and even suck up an atmosphere’s worth of toxic gas to save others from fallout. However, there are two things that seem to bypass Superman’s force field completely: magic and other Kryptonians. Both seem to somehow negate the field itself and pass right through it to strike Superman’s actual flesh. However, both still have to combat the super dense molecular structure composing his skin. And Superman has been struck with extremely potent, magical lightning attacks from both Captain Marvel and Black Adam and survived without any visible damage. He’s even gone up against the likes of Doctor Fate and survived planet busting magical attacks. He also fights other Kryptonians like General Zod, Faora, and Non regularly. *'Superhuman Endurance:' **'Self-Sustenance:' **'Healing Factor:' In the event that Superman is injured, he has been shown to have the ability to heal almost instantaneously from any wound, provided the process is not impeded by some outside factor (Kryptonite, Red Solar Radiation, etc.) This "healing factor" is supplemented by his stores of solar energy and is completely involuntary. Much like a human’s immune system and healing rate, Superman cannot choose when he heals and when he doesn’t. As long as there is enough solar energy within his body, Superman will heal from almost any wound, barring loss of limbs. *'Superhuman Strength:' Super strength has been the staple of Superman’s superpowers since his very creation back in 1938. And it’s one of the many abilities in his arsenal that’s varied considerably over the years. However, in the Modern Age, it is shown that he is easily capable of crushing diamonds in his hands, lifting mountains and continents, and even moving entire planets with his strength alone, the latter being approximately 6.6 sextillion tons. Just his punching power is even stated to be enough to “shatter entire worlds." However, though his strength is fueled by the solar energy within his cells, it has been hinted that it is somewhat psionic in nature—a form of tactile telekinesis. This means that Superman is partially lifting objects with his physical strength and partially extending some kind of field around the object itself, which would explain why the object doesn’t crumble apart under its own weight. Regardless, Superman has moved objects dwarfing the size of the Earth like the Mageddon Machine . His strength sometimes appears to be infinite, as he’s lifted both the Book of Infinite Pages and Spectre, but these appear to be outliers. *'Superhuman Speed:' As another one of Superman’s signature abilities is his superhuman speed, it makes him capable of moving, reacting, running, and flying at speeds far exceeding light. How fast Superman can actually move though is relatively indefinable. Originally, he was stated as being “faster than a speeding bullet” upon his first introduction into the comic book world. Over time, however, his speeds have increased quite a bit more. Casually, Superman is easily faster than light, which means he can break the DC Universe’s light barrier. Unlike Flash though, he does not usually seem able to break the time barrier, having only done so once and under extreme duress. However, Superman’s speed is nigh instantaneous, as he is able to increase his perception and movement speed within fractions of a second. This has been shown numerous times throughout his Modern Age career, either when keeping up with other speedsters or traveling to a defined point within an extremely short period of time, such as when he flew to Rao in under five minutes, a star located in the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2.537 million light years away. His brain also reacts and perceives things at an equivalent or even higher rate than Superman himself is capable of moving. He has been shown reading and comprehending tens of thousands of texts in minutes and perceiving things as if they were frozen in time along with the Flash, putting him at attosecond reaction time. And except for the Flash and others like him, Superman has proven himself to be one of the fastest speedsters in the DC universe. *'Flight:' Superman’s ability to fly is primarily due to two reasons: the first is that he comes from a planet with a much higher gravity than that of Earth’s and the second is because of his body’s ability to produce their own gravitons when under a yellow sun. This allows Superman to produce his own personalized flight field and move himself through the air very quickly and with perfect control. He has been shown casually flying upside down, backwards, and even under extremely heavy gravitational forces such as black holes. Superman is also at his fastest whenever he is flying, being capable of traveling several millions of times the speed of light while in midair. However, Superman doesn’t usually travel this fast while still within the Earth’s atmosphere, cautionary to the devastation such speeds could cause to the Earth itself. In the vacuum of space, however, there seems to be almost no limit as to how fast Superman can travel, as he has been shown flying to entire star systems and back in minutes and even seconds. *'Vibrational Control:' A power he copied from the Flash, Superman has the ability to vibrate all of his molecules so fast that he literally displaces himself from his normal physical frequency. **'Intangibility:' Control of the power above provides Superman the ability to become completely intangible. This power works both against physical strikes as well as energy attacks, as Superman proved in his training with Mongul II. Superman has also shown the capability to vibrate outside forces along with his own body to make them intangible as well. He did this to the entire planet Earth when it was going to collide with an alternate Earth and destroy “the entire omniverse." **'Invisibility:' As a carryover from his intangibility, Superman can also vibrate his molecules so fast that he becomes invisible to the naked eye and visible light spectrum. *'Superhuman Senses:' **'Super Smell:' On various occasions, Superman has demonstrated that his olfactory senses are just as acute as any other sense he possess, being able to discern odors that would be odorless to normal human beings. He’s also demonstrated the ability to identify smells clear across the planet. **'Super Hearing:' Superman has incredible hearing, allowing him to detect sounds and frequencies from across the globe. He has shown enough control to block out ambient noise to focus on a specific source and can even hear every heartbeat, the blood flowing through every vein, every footstep, and every transmitted signal on the entire planet. He can detect an individual by their heartbeat alone and can tell when someone’s lying based on the irregularities of that heartbeat. Superman can even ignore the laws of a vacuum and hear a cry for help while in space, even thousands of miles away from the Earth. **'Electromagnetic Spectrum Vision:' More commonly known as X-Ray Vision, Superman possesses the ability to see far more than just the visible light spectrum that most humans see. By focusing the muscles in his eyes, he can choose to perceive the entire electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet light, gamma rays, and of course, x-rays. Superman has even proven capable of seeing a person’s soul or living essence before. However, Superman’s vision capabilities aren’t just limited to various kinds of radiation. He also possesses Telescopic Vision and Microscopic Vision; the former allowing him to see clearly across vast distances (even Earth to other planets) and the latter allowing him to see at the sub-atomic level. He has used both in battle before to deduce his enemy’s weakness and exploit them. Also, it should be noted that, for his X-Ray Vision, Superman has the ability to see things like an x-ray or to peel back the objects layers just to see through them. The only element he cannot see through is lead. *'Super Scream:' Superman can project devastating frequencies from his vocal cords , the upper limit of which has never been shown. However, Superman has used the ability to counter the threat of an already impending nuclear explosion and to destroy the essence of Darkseid while he possessed the Miracle Machine. The latter feat was accomplished when Superman sang a note at such a frequency that it countered Darkseid’s own vibrational frequency and destroyed his essence. However, he usually uses lesser forms of this attack in combat to stagger foes or get the upper hand, as using it to its full extent could be devastating to the environment around him. *'Super Breath:' The ability to create hurricane force winds by expelling air from his lungs and to chill his breath in order to freeze a target—the latter ability being called Freeze Breath or Arctic Breath. Superman’s Super Breath is another of his staple abilities and he uses it primarily to avert natural disaster, as creating hurricanes in battle could prove devastating to the environment. However, his Freeze Breath is something he employs regularly while in combat and has mastered using it to various degrees. The ability to chill inhaled air is a function of Superman's great strength and invulnerability. When Superman takes air into his lungs, they compress the incoming gas. When this gas expands upon exhalation, in a fashion analogous to the operation of an air conditioners compressor, the sudden increase in volume of the gas causes its temperature to drop proportionally to the size of this expansion. Superman has proven capable of projecting ice storms with bowling ball size hail from his breath and freezing enemies solid in their tracks . As stated before, Superman can also breathe in large amounts of air and hold it in his lungs, an ability used when dealing with and disposing things like clouds of poison gas. *'Heat Vision:' Another of Superman signature abilities, this is the ability to project beams of intense heat at a target by gazing upon them with the conscious act activating his power. Visually, the power is typically depicted as two beams of red light being fired from his eyes. However, the beams can be made invisible to allow Superman to work undetected. The effective range of Superman’s Heat Vision seems to be anywhere from point blank range to up to two-hundred thousand miles away. He can also widen these beams to dozens or even thousands of miles in width, allowing him to instantly incinerate an army of Doomsday clones or an entire planet if he chooses to. Superman usually uses his Telescopic Vision in conjunction with this power to allow for greater accuracy and precision, two aspects he’s very masterful over. Superman can ricochet his beams off of solid surfaces in order to hit his opponent and even bypass a target’s outer shell to strike at their internal organs, as shown when performing surgeries while using his Microscopic Vision or in battle, when he’s shown the capability of lobotomizing his enemies, either robbing them of their powers, memories, or both. However, he usually doesn’t use his Heat Vision in such a way because of the moral constraints he has around his conscious—only in extreme circumstances. It should be noted that Heat Vision is the one power that drains Superman of his solar energy reserves the fastest, but it only has any real visible effect when he amps it up to planetary levels. *'Supercharging:' Superman has two ways of increasing his solar absorption and becoming even stronger. The first is supercharging himself by flying close to or right next to the Sun itself. A supercharged Superman glows red and is several times stronger than his normal self and allows him to perform tasks he wouldn’t normally be able to do under his regular solar levels. This increase applies to all of his abilities. He’s faster, stronger, more durable, and can emit more energy than usual. This is all because the closer Superman is to the Sun, the less the radiation wavelength is spread and the more energy his body actually takes in. Because, as stated before, Superman’s ability to absorb and metabolize solar energy is nigh infinite. *'Sundipping:' Superman’s second way to increase his solar absorption, as well as his overall power, is by flying directly into a yellow sun. When he emerges, he literally emits so much solar energy that his physical form changes to appear like the Sun itself . He glows red and yellow and sunspots dot his physique. Not to mention, this drastically increases Superman’s powers to enormous levels. His strength, speed, durability, and energy output become so large that he can easily move planets, become entirely indestructible, and focus all of that energy into one blast of concentrated Heat Vision. How powerful sundipping makes Superman and the duration he can maintain this form is directly proportional to how long he stays inside the Sun. The longer he remains bathed in the purest form of solar energy there is, the more powerful he exponentially becomes. Fifteen minutes increased his powers enough to easily fend off a threat that nearly crushed the entire Justice League while 15,300 years within the Sun turned him into a god, allowing him to create life forms, resurrect dead souls, and create entire planets. 'Techniques' *'Torquasm Vo:' A Kryptonian martial art that Superman trained himself in. Torquasm Vo is a means of focusing one’s mental discipline used to fight adverse effects like mental domination, making both it and deep telepathy useless against the Man of Steel. Superman can also use the fighting style to manipulate someone’s mind and project illusions into their psyche. He did this in his fight against the Eradicator to distract him while the physical Superman entered inside the being’s real body. *'Torquasm Rao:' Another Kryptonian martial art, Torquasm Rao allows Superman to tap into his instincts and enter the theta state of being, allowing his body to react to things instinctually while he is free to roam the astral plane. This is also another technique which can completely defend Superman from psionic attacks and mental manipulation. Superman has used this to place passive psychic barriers in his mind to keep him protected at all times. *'Infinite Mass Punch:' Originally a Flash technique, Superman can perform the Infinite Mass Punch by accelerating himself to just under the speed of light (670,616,629 mph). By doing so, Superman’s mass literally becomes infinite (according to the laws of relativity) and he delivers a punch with a much higher payload of force then he ever could by throwing his normal attacks. The estimated force of this attack is stated by its inventor, the Flash, to hit with the mass of a White Dwarf Star. 'Equipment' *'Rebirth Kryptonian Armor:' Fashioned by the House of El, Superman’s Kryptonian Armor is a symbol of his lost homeworld. As durable as he is, the armor acts as a second layer of impenetrable defense under his bio-electric aura and over his super dense molecular structure. The armor even has the ability to regenerate itself if damaged, and can be concealed by dematerializing itself to only the shield on Superman’s chest. The cape of the armor can be used to shield others, as well as himself, and has the same impenetrable textile structure as any other part of the armor. 'Weaknesses' *'Kryptonite:' Kryptonite is a radioactive piece of Superman’s homeworld of Krypton. After his planet exploded, the debris from its destruction passed through several different nebulae, becoming radioactive and harmful to Superman in various ways. However, as Kryptonite has been around for almost as long as Superman has, there have been many changes in the effects and consistencies of various types of Kryptonite (namely Red Kryptonite). **Green Kryptonite is fatal to a Kryptonian’s physiology. The radiation it gives off both gradually weakens Superman, drains his power, and causes him excruciating physical pain, “Like every cell in my body is on fire.” However, if the Green Kryptonite is removed from Superman’s immediate area then his powers return to him in full and he’s cured of its effects. Also, green Kryptonite does not hinder Superman as much as some fans believe, as he’s learned to deal with its effects over the years. He’s been shot with Kryptonite bullets, had pieces of it in his brain, and even been hit with lasers powered by it, and has overcome each and every obstacle. **Red Kryptonite is an anomaly of the Kryptonite family, as it has caused various ill-effects over the years. However, its effects have generally been suggested to be random depending on the universe it resides in. However, most commonly, it causes some kind of mental change in Superman, from a shift in personality to hallucinatory effects of some kind. **Blue Kryptonite is another that has been changed from writer to writer. Recently though, it has been shown to rob Superman of his power for as long as he is in contact with it. It also hurts Bizarro forms of Kryptonians just like Green Kryptonite hurts normal Kryptonians. **Silver Kryptonite has been shown to cause Superman to become overly paranoid and have hallucinations of his worst fears. **Black Kryptonite splits Superman’s good identity from his evil identity until they can merge back together as one, whichever side winning the battle being the one who claims full control of Superman’s body. **Gold Kryptonite will rob any Kryptonian of their powers permanently, only able to regain them through unspecified means *'Magic:' Another of Superman’s most well-known weaknesses is magic, though there has been a massive misconception about it over the years. Superman is not “weak” to magic. He does not keel over when it’s used around him like he does with Green Kryptonite. Instead, it just affects him like it does anyone else. And there is a reason for this. As stated earlier, part of Superman’s durability is a bio-electric force field that his body produces around his skin. All magic does is negate this force field to attack Superman’s skin directly. However, with that said, Superman’s dense molecular structure is still durable enough to shrug off a lot of magical attacks. Both Shazam and Black Adam’s lightning, for instance, only marginally scorches Superman’s skin—and they are beings of pure magic. And Superman has withstood several more powerful magic attacks from more powerful and cosmic entities like Spectre and Doctor Fate. He even survived a planet-busting magical blast that would have destroyed the Earth had Superman not tanked it. So again, Superman is not “weak” to magic; it just negates his bio-electric force field, and still has to contend with his super dense molecular structure. *'Red Solar Radiation:'Another of Superman’s weaknesses is red sun radiation. While a yellow sun imbues Superman with his abilities, red solar radiation will gradually take them away. This is why Kryptonians living on Krypton didn’t have Superman’s superhuman abilities. Because their sun, Rao, was a red sun. That and the gravity of Krypton was several hundred times that of Earth’s, making it nearly impossible for Kryptonians to leave the planet. Superman’s father, Jor-El was one of the first to figure it out. Again though, there are major misconceptions with this weakness. Red solar radiation does not immediately drain Superman of his power. It instead, like Kryptonite, only gradually takes them away over time. In Infinite Crisis, three Supermans from Earth-One, New Earth, and Earth-Prime, all actually fly through Rao (a Red Giant) while surrounded by Kryptonite before crash landing on a deserted planet. And they still had enough strength left to continue their battle there. Flying through a red sun while getting depowered and sick from Kryptonite would be like all three Supermen tanking millions of nuclear explosions rapid fire and feeling every bit of it. To fly through a star meant to zap all of your powers away and still retain the durability necessary to survive that heat and power of that star is more than enough proof that Superman is only hampered by red solar radiation, not immediately crippled by it. He’s also fought many beings who casually wield red solar radiation in their moveset and still come out on top. Also, it’s actually fairly easy to calculate how much Red Solar Radiation would weaken Superman by. A main sequence yellow star has an effective temperature of approximately 6,000 K while a red star has anywhere between 2,400 - 3700 K—almost half that of a yellow sun. Their luminosity is about the same, with a main sequence yellow star having a maximum of 1.5 L and a red star having a maximum of 0.8 L. Thus, it can be theorized that a red sun would weaken Superman at a rate of half his solar energy levels per second. Basically, if a yellow star was on one side of him and a red star on the other side, Superman would get no stronger and no weaker, since he’d be absorbing both kinds of radiation simultaneously. *'Kryptonians:' Superman’s final weakness is to other Kryptonians. As shown throughout the comics, Kryptonians have a much easier time dealing damage to one another than someone like Darkseid does to Superman. When two Kryptonians fight, they begin to bleed from blows much faster than when they’re going up against even more powerful beings, because of a negation flaw in their inherent genetic structures. As stated previously, Superman achieves a good portion of his invulnerability thanks to the bio-electric field surrounding his body. All Kryptonians have this same field under a yellow sun. However, when two Kryptonians fight in close quarters, their fields negate one another and allow their attacks to pass right through to the skin itself. This is why Kryptonians can deal much easier damage to one another than someone of even greater strength, like Darkseid. This is also the primary reason Superman and Doomsday were able to kill one another. Technically a Kryptonian and of Kryptonian design, all of Doomsday’s attacks and bone protrusions were capable of tearing right past Superman’s bio-electric force field and dealing damage straight to his dense molecular structure. In this way, two Kryptonians fighting is akin to magic, as both pass right through the natural force field Kryptonians emit. Feats Strength: Speed: *Superman in his Electric Blue state races Wally West from Buenos Aires to Beijing (19,255 km) in 0.003 seconds, which is 14.3 billion mph or 21 times faster than light Explanations Gallery Trivia Notable Victories: The Sentry (Marvel Comics) (Sentry Profile) Notable Losses: Inconclusive Matches: Category:DC Comics Category:Superheroes Category:Justice League Members Category:Male Characters Category:Justice League Founders Category:Tier 4